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Well known lobbyist and former state legislator Steve Durham has been a fixture at the Colorado Capitol since the late 1970s when he began his political career as a Republican state representative from El Paso County, later moving on to the state Senate. Last month, a State Board of Education vacancy committee selected Durham over three other candidates to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Paul Lundeen, another El Paso Couty Republican who was elected to the statehouse in November and sworn in a couple weeks ago.

Rep. Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder County, sat down with The Colorado Statesman on Jan. 2, 2015, at the newspaper office across the street from the Capitol for an interview with Editor & Publisher Jody Hope Strogoff. Hullinghorst was scheduled to be officially ushered in as the new speaker of the House five days later when the 70th General Assembly convened. She discussed her upcoming role as the first Democratic woman speaker of the House and her expectations of the session.

In the thick of a busy nomination calendar for Colorado candidates, state Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call and state Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio joined The Colorado Statesman for a wide-ranging discussion about the upcoming election and the possible fortunes of candidates in a state both agree is up for grabs in the November election.

Many people will remember Martha Ezzard from her days as an elected state senator from Cherry Hills Village in the 1980s and her subsequent run for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1986. Two years later, Ezzard was a candidate for Congress in the suburban 6th Congressional District, this time as the Democratic nominee.

There was perhaps no greater rivalry in the history of sports than that of Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird and Los Angeles Lakers point guard Earvin “Magic” Johnson. But it was more of a courtship between Magic and Bird — a “courtship of rivals,” as one documentary put it.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper recently returned from a week in Israel where he traveled with Denver businessman Larry Mizel and three other private citizens. This was the first time that Hickenlooper has been to Israel. Although the trip abroad was personal versus state business, the Governor agreed to share some of his experiences with The Colorado Statesman in an interview at his Capitol office on April 30. The following transcript has been edited lightly for clarity.

Colorado College political science professors Thomas Cronin and Robert Loevy are so confident that Colorado is a solidly “purple” state — decidedly up for grabs despite big wins by Democrats this year and by Republicans in the last election — that they went to the mat when it came time to design their most recent book’s cover.

Three weeks after President Barack Obama won Colorado and Democrats took back control of the state House by a wide margin, state Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio and state Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call joined The Colorado Statesman for a wide-ranging discussion about the election and the future of both parties in a state both say they expect to remain up for grabs.

State Democratic Party chairman Rick Palacio and his Republican counterpart Ryan Call have a lot in common. Both are Colorado natives with lengthy political resumés, and both worked their way up through the party structure with relative speed. Palacio, who emerged from a crowded contest to helm the Democrats last year at age 36, was the youngest state party chair in memory. He lost that distinction a few weeks later when Call, who is a few months younger, managed the same feat on the Republican side.